Arlington, Texas — So many big plays, so many bad plays, so many wasted plays. The Lions put themselves in position for a stirring victory and then took themselves right out, again and again, gaffe after gaffe.

They stopped the Cowboys on third down, but whoops, someone lined up offside. They took the lead on another perfect strike from Matthew Stafford to Golden Tate, but whoops, the defense gave it right back in the final two minutes.

The record will show the Cowboys were a desperate home team with a dominant back in Ezekiel Elliott, and he made the play of the game on a 34-yard catch over linebacker Jarrad Davis. Brett Maher then booted the winning 38-yard field goal at the final gun and the Cowboys edged the Lions, 26-24, on Sunday.

The larger picture is, the Lions had to be especially creative to blow this. Wasted? A big effort from Stafford (24-for-30, 307 yards) and his acrobatic pass-catching trio of Tate, Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones. Squandered? The buzz from last week’s resounding victory over the Patriots, as the Lions fell to 1-3 with inexcusable lapses in discipline. Burned? A defense that still can’t stop the run, no matter who’s running it.

No surprise here, but Matt Patricia has a long way to go to stamp out the Lions’ self-injuring tendencies. Elliott and Dak Prescott beat the Lions, but boy, they got a lot of help from a reliable source — the Lions themselves. On one key penalty, linebacker Eli Harold simply lined up offside, negating Dallas’ incompletion on third down. Given another shot, Elliott rumbled 35 yards to the Lions’ 7, setting up a field goal for a 23-17 lead.

“It was just careless by me,” Harold said. “I just gotta be more aware in that situation, just lock in, be smarter. It sucks, bro, it sucks.”

'We killed ourselves'

Harold is new to the Lions, but as we saw, not immune to their maddening foibles. A couple lockers away, another defensive player expressed similar sentiments. A few lockers farther down, so did another. Given a chance to put away a game that Stafford appeared to pull out, the defense gave up one more big play, one too many.

“They pounced on all our penalties, scored when they needed to score,” defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois said. “This game was more about us, it was us that put this game where it was. I take my hat off to the Dallas Cowboys, they did their job. But we killed ourselves.”

The Lions finished with eight penalties — including three defensive holdings on one third-quarter drive — while the Cowboys had two. With a disparity like that in a place like this, where the Lions felt they’d been jobbed before, it generated a few veiled gripes from players.

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Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott makes an over-the-shoulder catch to put Dallas well within field-goal range. The Cowboys booted a field goal on the final play to beat the Detroit Lions, 26-24, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Lions wide receiver Golden Tate catches and hangs onto a reception under Cowboys' Chidobe Awuzie for a first down in the second quarter. The play was challenged by Dallas and was ruled a reception. Daniel Mears, Detroit News

Lions wide receiver Golden Tate catches and hangs onto a reception under Cowboys' Chidobe Awuzie for a first down in the second quarter. The play was challenged by Dallas and was ruled a reception. Daniel Mears, Detroit News

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford looks for an open receiver as offensive linemen Graham Glasgow and Frank Ragnow work in the third quarter. Stafford was sacked on this play. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Lions wide receiver Kenny Golladay is able to pull in a reception in front of Cowboys' Chidobe Awuzie and gets his feet down for a completion along the sidelines in the third quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Lions defensive lineman Da'Shawn Hand gets a hand on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's hand, forcing the fumble that Prescott was able to recover and throw it away to avoid the loss yardage on the final drive of the game in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's finds the football and begins to chase it down as teammate Joe Looney holds back Lions' Da'Shawn Hand, who forced the fumble late in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's finds the football and begins to chase it down as teammate Joe Looney holds back Lions' Da'Shawn Hand, who forced the fumble late in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's finds the football and begins to chase it down as teammate Joe Looney holds back Lions' Da'Shawn Hand, who forced the fumble late in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's finds the football and begins to chase it down as teammate Joe Looney holds back Lions' Da'Shawn Hand, who forced the fumble late in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott celebrates as Lions linebacker Jarrad Davis slowly gets up, with teammate Tracy Walker, after Elliott makes a long first down reception over Davis to put Dallas within field-goal distance late in the fourth quarter. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Lions' Golden Tate and Matthew Stafford celebrate in the end zone after Tate's go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Unfortuantely, the celebration was short-lived. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

Former Lions quarterback and current Cowboys quarterbacks coach Kellen Moore and former Lions offensive coordinator and current Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan chat with Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford on the field during warm-ups. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News

It had to be an enormously frustrating day for them, as Elliott ran for 152 yards and added another 88 on receptions. Prescott didn’t do much until the end, and then made lucky plays and clutch plays. Stafford’s 38-yard touchdown strike to Tate with 2:17 left put the Lions on top 24-23, but with their defensive deficiencies, it’s unsafe to declare anything safe.

Undisciplined mistakes were a problem, obviously. But the game was won on a basic route by Elliott, who beat Davis down the right sideline and caught the pass at the 25. From there, the Cowboys bled the clock and kicked the winner.

Afterward, Davis was disconsolate, a towel draped over his head. Dropping into coverage has been his weakness, and the Cowboys exploited it. Davis took responsibility, although it was a pinpoint throw by Prescott and a great catch by Elliott.

“I just gotta get in position to make a better play on the ball,” Davis said. “Not really a whole lot I can say. To get that close and have it ripped away like that, it sucks.”

More control

This was a crusher, and you could see it etched in Patricia’s pained expression. He lamented the penalties, and as he often says, “It starts with me.” Yep, it does. But there also were some fluky twists, even by Lions standards.

Late in the first half, Romeo Okwara was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty when he clobbered Prescott, although it was unclear whether the quarterback had been ruled down yet. It was somewhat beside the point, as Darius Slay also was called for illegal contact. On the next play, Prescott dumped a pass to Elliott, who rumbled 38 yards for the touchdown and a 13-10 lead.

On the Cowboys’ final drive, Lions rookie Da’Shawn Hand rushed hard and knocked the ball out of Prescott’s hand. But the quarterback scooped it up and saved the play (and perhaps the game) by throwing the ball away.

The Lions also lost right guard T.J. Lang early to a concussion, but the offensive line held up adequately. The problem was, the newfound running game was lost again, and after Kerryon Johnson ran 32 yards on the first play, he finished with only 55 on nine carries. He needs a larger role, otherwise the offense is reduced to a high-wire unbalanced act too reliant on Stafford, who got off to another slow start.

Tate was brilliant, with eight catches for 132 yards, although his high-stepping and showboating isn’t a great look, even if it is an amusing look. Patricia spoke to him on the sideline about it, and Tate admitted it was “selfish on my part” and he needed to show more discipline.

That should be tattooed into the Lions’ overall mindset. They don’t have many play-makers on defense, but they certainly can play more disciplined. The formula really hasn’t changed over the years — giving plays away is exactly how you give games away.